McDonald Lecture 2016 Prof Eske Willerslev Human migration and mega faunal exctinctions Cambridge Archaeology 2024-10-17 | McDonald Lecture 2016 Prof Eske Willerslev Human migration and mega faunal exctinctions
Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Lecture 2024, University of Cambridge - Habiba Chirchir Cambridge Archaeology 2024-03-22 | “What we know and don't know yet about skeletal gracility in modern humans” Dr Habiba Chirchir, Marshall University. Abstract:Skeletal gracility is the reduction in the strength and relative bone mass as inferred from bone tissue and overall bone size. In contrast to our hominin ancestors, the recent modern human skeleton is unusually gracile. In this lecture, I will examine the evidence supporting the recent emergence of gracile morphology, explore the variations in this morphology among recent human groups, and discuss the various hypotheses that have been proposed to explain this phenomenon through a comparative analysis of extinct and extant mammalian species including hominin ancestors from the deep past, reaching as far back as ~ 2 million years ago.
Archaeology within a unified science of cultural evolution - Prof. Alex Mesoudi Cambridge Archaeology 2024-01-11 | “Archaeology within a unified science of cultural evolution” by Prof. Alex Mesoudi, Professor of Cultural Evolution at the University of ExeterThis talk was due to be given in November 2023 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.Abstract: I will provide an overview of modern cultural evolution theory, and suggest how archaeology fits into a unified science of cultural evolution. Cultural evolution is the idea that cultural change constitutes an inheritance process that bears some similarities with (but also differences to) genetic evolution. Cultural evolution researchers are interested in the processes by which cultural traits (e.g. archaeological artifacts) change and diversify over time. Some of these processes are psychological, such as tendencies to copy prestigious individuals or conform to group majorities, others are material, to do with the qualities of the traits being copied, and others are demographic, such as the effects of population size and structure. I will illustrate some of these ideas by presenting the results of past studies that have experimentally simulated patterns in the archaeological record. In the first, participants designed virtual arrowheads that could be copied by others, testing hypotheses about prehistoric projectile point variation in North America. In the second, participants designed and copied virtual handaxes, testing whether changes observed in real handaxes are consistent with unintentional copying error or whether intentional, directional change was important. The theory of cultural evolution has the potential to unify the social sciences just as it has the natural sciences, and archaeology stands to play a crucial role in this unified science of cultural evolution.Many thanks to Prof. Mesoudi for providing this recording.
How quantifying archaeological data can help us trace urban dynamics - Dr Izabela Romanowska Cambridge Archaeology 2023-05-27 | Dr Izabela Romanowska, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies | Graves, grains and grievances: How quantifying archaeological data can help us trace urban dynamics against their global contextAbstract:In these times of fragile and moving borders, social and political shifts, and rapid climate change, looking into the past can bring much-needed insights into large-scale long-term dynamics of social and socio-natural systems. The Roman Empire is a case in point as one of the earliest examples of a large-scale integrated socio-economic and political body comprising human groups across diverse environments, multiple languages and subsistence strategies. Its centuries-long history enables us to track the evolution of communities in the face of global social and environmental transformations. In this presentation, I will focus on the data, methods, and results of a multiphased interdisciplinary project Reconstructing ancient demographics through archaeological-historical data integration and computer simulation investigating the demographic dynamics of the ancient cities of Palmyra and Forum Hadriani. It showcases how computational modelling methods applied to diverse proxies enable us to gain a fuller picture of the population dynamics of past communities against the background of the global events that affected them. Strong integration of a range of archaeological datasets, including funerary data, built environment, as well as urban and hinterland reconstructions, allowed us to gain significant insights into the fundamental processes behind the urban evolution of these ancient cities. They also hint at more generalised socio-ecological mechanisms that may be driving human groups both in the past and in the present. Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 11th May 2023
Food Globalization in prehistory: What kinds of globalization? - Prof. Martin Jones Cambridge Archaeology 2023-05-25 | Prof. Martin Jones, University of Cambridge | Food Globalization in prehistory: What kinds of globalization?Abstract:Research findings over the last 15 years have brought to light a series of crop movements which, by the mid 2nd millennium BC formed an interweaving pattern spanning much of the Old World. Research on this topic to date has largely entailed the geographical definition of that interweaving pattern and establishing its chronology. Those findings now allow us to enquire into the actual processes underpinning the arrows across the map, to ask how the crops moved, with whom or what they moved, what kinds of transactions that entailed, and what were the consequences of this global intermixing of crops.In pursuing that enquiry, I shall have in mind a range of processes, in one scenario comprising mobile ecosystems, of people, cultural practices, crops, and animals, all migrating in tandem. In a contrasting scenario, they comprise crops as detached and freely exchanged commodities, physiologically and ecologically uncoupled from their ancestral niche. I shall consider how the bioarchaeological evidence allows us to discriminate between these scenarios, and propose a chronology for the transition of an emphasis upon the former to one upon the latter, in order to make connections with wider discussions of globalization. Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 4th May 2023
Crop Migrations as a Globalising Process - Dr. Sureshkumar Muhukumaran Cambridge Archaeology 2023-05-25 | Crop Migrations as a Globalising Process: The Case of Tropical Asian Crops in Ancient East-West Networks | Dr. Sureshkumar Muhukumaran, National University of SingaporeAbstract:This paper, using the case of tropical Asian crops in ancient east-west networks, contends that the creation of a common “ecolanguage”, that is coherence in crop and consumptive cultures, was the basis for further political and cultural cohesion. Using a number of case-studies, I will characterise the development of this “ecolanguage” as a dynamic, non-linear globalising process which was both random and deliberate. In this regard, the second part of the paper considers questions of agency in this globalising process and attempts to wean off commerce-centric models of pre-modern connectivity.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 16th March 2023
What Do We Mean by Globalisation in the Prehistoric Mediterranean? Prof. Susan Sherratt Cambridge Archaeology 2023-05-25 | What Do We Mean by Globalisation in the Prehistoric and Early Historic Mediterranean? - Prof. Susan Sherratt, University of Sheffield Abstract:The term ‘globalisation’ was first coined roughly 40 years ago, and is usually thought of as characteristic of a world economy that has only recently come into existence, in which the exigencies of free-market capitalism, particularly in the form of multi-national corporations, demand and achieve the free movement of goods and capital across national and cultural boundaries. In this sense, it conveys a particular modern ideology. Not only that, but it is an extremely polarising ideology, depending on how different groups of people perceive that it has affected, and continues to affect, them. As with many concepts borrowed by archaeologists from modern social sciences, including the economic and political sciences, it tends to bring a lot of extraneou contemporary baggage with it when applied to much earlier eras.Without questioning too much why archaeologists, in what seems to be a perennial state of insecurity, feel the constant need to adopt entire concepts and their associated terminologies which have been developed in other disciplines and for other times and circumstances (though this can certainly be questioned), I shall attempt to pinpoint a definition of globalisation that seems generally appropriate for application to the deep past of the Mediterranean. I shall also try to explain what this means in terms applicable to that past, and outline some of the main stages of the early globalising process that can be traced in the western Old World in general and the Mediterranean in particular.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 9th March 2023
Globalisation in Deep Time: Postdisciplinary Lessons from the Palaeolithic - Dr Inanna Hamati-Ataya Cambridge Archaeology 2023-05-25 | Dr. Inanna Hamati-Ataya, University of Cambridge, Globalisation in Deep Time: Postdisciplinary Lessons from the Palaeolithic - Dr Inanna Hamati-AtayaAbstract:Historicising globalisation entails crossing chronological thresholds—‘the present’, ‘modernity’, ‘antiquity’, etc.—that often operate as conceptual or epistemological boundaries. The greatest and most enduring has been the threshold of ‘history’ itself, beyond which the notions of society, culture, or civilisation apparently cease to be meaningful analytical frameworks for understanding the condition of humanity as a social and natural species. In this talk I make the case for a deep historical perspective on globalisation and argue that extending the chronology beyond the longue durée to encompass so-called ‘prehistory’ does more than just illuminate other/older configurations of our common global condition. To do so I first show, using a standard definition of globalisation, that humanity experienced its first truly ‘global age’ during the period known as the ‘Palaeolithic’. Focusing on the role of specific epistemic innovations and cultural practices in establishing and maintaining the structures and processes of connectivity, exchange, and integration characteristic of that period, I then propose ‘cultural biogeography’ as the most fruitful analytical framework to explain Palaeolithic globalisation, understood as the distinctive globality of a forager lifeway deployed in the Pleistocene’s uniquely challenging environmental conditions and the historically unique circumstances of planetary colonisation. In conclusion I argue that a deep-time perspective allows us to understand and break down the great wall of ‘history’ as a distinctively agrarian category, to illuminate the process of globalisation as fundamental to the nature of humanity qua cultural species, but also to draw on pre-Holocenic life and lessons for a better understanding and anticipation of the Anthropocenic future.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 16th February 2023
Globalisation and Historical Globalities - Prof. Barry Gills Cambridge Archaeology 2023-05-25 | Globalisation and Historical Globalities | Prof. Barry Gills, University of HelsinkiAbstract:The presentation will discuss a range of conceptualizations of "Globalization" and address multiple possibilities of how to define and use the concept to explore "Historical Globalities", and consider what may constitute globalization(s) in world history. Distinctions between Globalization(s) and World Systems analysis will be introduced. Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 2nd February 2023
Globalisation and Wari State-making: Re-evaluating Middle Horizon Peru - Dr Justin Jennings Cambridge Archaeology 2023-05-25 | Dr. Justin Jennings, Royal Ontario Museum | Globalisation and Wari State-making: Re-evaluating Middle Horizon PeruAbstract:Most conceptualizations of the state in archaeology remain rooted in Enlightenment ideas of interlocking institutions that existed external to individuals and their interactions. These static conceptualizations often run counter to the temporal and spatial variability often seen in a state’s impact, and fail to capture the globalizing effects of the widespread circulation of ideas, goods, people, and other things. States are more fruitfully seen as dynamic assemblages that leaders, as well as other agents, attempt to manipulate to achieve their desires. The state is (re)created in each encounter, though often in ways that are both unanticipated and uncontrollable. This lecture considers the Wari expansion in Peru during the Middle Horizon (CE 600-1000) from an assemblage perspective. The variation in Wari-related encounters in the region provides insights into the relationship between early state-making and globalization that may prove useful to those studying expansive polities in other regions of the world. Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 26th January 2023
Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Inaugural Lecture 2022, University of Cambridge - Zerenesay Alemseged Cambridge Archaeology 2023-01-03 | "The changing face of Australopithecus and human origins in Africa"Professor Zeresenay Alemseged, (University of Chicago)Abstract:One hundred fifty years ago, Darwin prophesied that our earliest ancestor would be found in Africa based on morphological and biogeographic argument and without the benefit of genetic and fossil evidence. Today, DNA studies show that the Homo/Pan lineages separated around 7 million years ago and human fossil ancestors that are older that 2 million years are exclusively African. A plethora of hominin species occupied the continent from around 7 million years ago up until the emergence of our species some 300,000 years ago. One of these earliest hominin genera, which is believed to have been ancestral to our genus Homo is Australopithecus. This genus which was first described in 1925 based on South African fossils and subsequently found in several corners of the continent, was for long characterized as a small brained, non stone tool using, bipedal creature with largely ape like behavior and cranial morphology. This portrayal has however significantly changed over the past decades owing to the proliferation of fossil discoveries as well as the application of novel data collection and analytical methods in paleoanthropology. In this presentation, I will show that Australopithecus practiced arboreality while being bipedal on the ground, used stone tools to consume animal resources, and possessed some human like behavioral attributes including the presence of childhood. These new findings support the notion that the long-lived and cosmopolitan species Australopithecus afarensis was ancestral to multiple species including early Homo, which ultimately gave rise to Homo sapiens. Speaker Biography:Professor Zeray Alemseged is a paleoanthropologist in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. His research interests include human evolution and the exploration of the factors that shaped the evolution of humans and extinct ancestral species.Prof. Alemseged undertakes extensive fieldwork and employs cutting-edge imaging techniques to investigate the evolutionary process and mechanisms that led to the emergence of Homo sapiens. He explores both the biological and cultural transformations that occurred over the past 6 millions years since humans diverged from the apes.
Prof Amy Bogaard - 34th McDonald Annual Lecture Cambridge Archaeology 2022-12-08 | "Prehistoric farming futures? Recent insights from western Asia and Europe", presented by Professor Amy Bogaard (University of Oxford) at the McCrum Lecture Theatre, 16th November 2022Abstract: In this talk I explore how the deep past of farming can shape more sustainable futures. The archaeology of early farmers offers opportunities to rediscover lost crops, ancient ecological knowledge and strategies resilient to climate change. The Neolithic story ranges from the formative agrobiodiversity of initial farming in western Asia, to emerging perspectives from ‘wet’ (lakeshore) Neolithics in south-east Europe and the inventive efforts of early farming communities in central and western Europe to maintain biodiverse farming systems against the odds. Subsequent prehistory reveals a sequence of intermittent simplification and loss of agrobiodiversity, notably where power structures constrained farming strategies. These processes increased social vulnerability to climate change. Equally, however, the archaeological record preserves forms of resistance through smallholder farming, dispersal of new crops through long-distance networks and resurgences of ‘Neolithic’ agroecology. The prehistory of farming reveals its creative beginnings and radical future potential, from rural production to (sub)urban gardening.Speaker bio: My formal archaeological training began with Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. This afforded the opportunity to work at sites like Troy, but also to develop interests in the ancient and contemporary farming contexts of such iconic places. The MSc in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomy at Sheffield opened up new methodological possibilities, and the richness of potential feedback between past and present farming. After completing a doctorate at Sheffield in 2002, on Neolithic-Bronze Age farming in Central Europe, I took up a lecturership in archaeological science at Nottingham. Here the proximity of the British Geological Survey and agricultural campus at Sutton Bonington provided further stimulus for method development in comparative studies of ancient and contemporary farming, alongside archaeobotanical work on sites in Europe and Turkey. Since 2007 I’ve been at Oxford, where I am Professor of Neolithic and Bronze Age Archaeology. My current research aims to combine agroecological enquiry with questions of social and ecological process over the long term.
The Unconventional Violence and Materiel of Modern Warfare Cambridge Archaeology 2022-11-28 | Col. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE VR, (Magdalene College, University of Cambridge), The Unconventional Violence and Materiel of Modern WarfareAbstract:The third most powerful conventional army on the planet, according to the head of GCHQ, is exhausted and nearly spent at the hands of one of the least powerful. The 20th Century ‘Soviet’ tactics and equipment of the Russian forces have been decimated by the 21st Century ‘NATO’ tactics and equipment of the Ukrainian Army, and most significantly backed up by Western intelligence which has allowed targeting of strategic Russian assets, such as command centres and ammunition dumps. Alarmingly, Putin seems to realise this and has recently appointed General ‘Armageddon’ Surovikin as the overall commander in Ukraine to bring his ‘unconventional violence and the materiel of modern warfare’ to Ukraine.At the heart of unconventional violence is attacking the civilian population directly. Having failed to overcome the Ukrainian soldiers on the front line, their families are now being attacked at home, their children are being murdered in their schools and those injured on the frontline are getting attacked in hospitals. The World Health Organisation reported last month that over 500 medical facilities had been directly attacked by Russian missiles and bombs. This is a repeat of the Syrian campaign, where UOSSM had over 1000 medics killed by attacks on their hospitals. These tactics, the Russians believe, will break the will of the people to resist and they will capitulate and force their government to sue for peace. In Syria, the unconventional violence also included chemical weapons, which the Russians allowed Assad to use with abandon. I saw at close hand the 4-year conventional attack on Aleppo, only conclude successfully with 17 days of chlorine barrel bomb attacks. Once you raise a city like Aleppo, or Zaporizhzhia to the ground, people can hide under the rubble, impervious to conventional bombs and bullets. But if you drop gas on it, as Assad did in Aleppo, you kill people underground or force them above ground where they are shot or captured. Chemical weapons have kept Assad in power to this day, in my opinion.Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons in all its guises; a threat we must take seriously as it is right out of the unconventional violence playbook. We must plan to counter this type of warfare in future which I expect is with us for the foreseeable future, and not the ‘status quo ante’ which seems often the case. Speaker Bio:Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a world leading expert in Chemical, Biological and nuclear weapons. Hamish is a commissioned reserve officer in the British Army’s Staff Corp as senior advisor & mentor to the MOD on CBRN. He is also advising NGOs and journalists in Ukraine on CBRN defence.Hamish served 23 years in the British Army including service as Commanding Officer of the UK CBRN Regiment and NATO's Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion. His operational deployments included the 1st Gulf War, Cyprus, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and has been in Syria & Iraq frequently in the last 10 years. This considerable experience in the field places Hamish as one of the world’s leading and most current experts in chemical, biological and nuclear counter terrorism and warfare.Today Hamish gives advice to UK and US Government agencies and is a senior MOD advisor on CBRN and Syria, and is frequently seen on global news channels providing expert commentary, and writes in UK, Middle East and US news journals and newspapers. He attended and passed the Australian Army Command & Staff Course. He is a Visiting Fellow at Magdalene College Cambridge in 20/22 and his memoir ‘Chemical Warrior’ was published Sep 20 https://t.co/Q4xfIBMhJA.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 17th November 2022
An Early Bronze Age Massacre at Shamanka II, Lake Baikal, Southern Siberia Cambridge Archaeology 2022-11-28 | Prof. Rick Schulting (University of Oxford), Lethal violence among Late Holocene huntergatherers: an Early Bronze Age massacre at Shamanka II, Lake Baikal, southern SiberiaAbstract:The importance of interpersonal violence among hunter-gatherers is much-debated. While there is no question that lethal violence does occur, its frequency and context are much less clear. Homicides are well documented among some foragers but there is little sense of organised, inter-group conflict. Conversely, large-scale, inter-group conflicts are well attested among other groups. The charge that this evidence is biased by the often-volatile situations created by European contact and colonial expansion, while perhaps valid in some contexts, can be easily refuted in many others by recourse to the archaeological record. As a contribution to this debate, I present a case study from Lake Baikal, southern Siberia. The majority of the 13 individuals found in 11 Early Bronze Age graves at the cemetery of Shamanka II, dating to 3880–3720 cal BP, show extensive evidence for perimortem trauma, including projectile injuries and both sharp- and blunt-force cranial trauma. This concentration of evidence for extreme violence is unique in the Baikal region, and is extremely rare for prehistoric hunter-gatherers worldwide. Radiocarbon dating in conjunction with Bayesian modelling is used to assess the likelihood that a single event is represented, and its implications are considered.Speaker Bio:Rick Schulting is Professor of Scientific and Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Oxford. His research interests include the transition to farming in western Europe, and evidence for social differentiation among hunter-gatherers and early farmers. He makes extensive use of stable isotopes to reconstruct diets and radiocarbon dating to provide robust chronological frameworks, with applications in Europe, Chile, The Bahamas and southern Siberia. Another research thread involves skeletal evidence for violence in small-scale societies in prehistory.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 10th November 2022
Mediterranean Mountains in the Iron Age Between Violence and Identity Cambridge Archaeology 2022-11-28 | Elena Scarsella (University of Cambridge), Mediterranean Mountains in the Iron Age Between Violence and Identity Abstract:The peculiar and fragmented human landscapes of the Mediterranean mountains are prone to a constant scarcity of resources and hence to a fierce competition over them. This forces the people inhabiting these landscapes to adapt constantly their social and economic strategies to maintain a critical balance in the availability and circulation of resources. In this frame, violence, both in its display and practice, plays the pivotal role of redistributing and facilitating the (not always consensual) circulation of materials and wealth. In doing this it is facilitated and legitimised by the progressive construction of a narrative around memory and ancestors. This is particularly true for the period between the 7th and the 5th century BC, when a widespread display of aggressive power is clear both on the landscape and the material culture. In this lecture the link between violence and identity will be explored through the case-study of the Aterno Valley during the Archaic period (7th to 5th century BC). Speaker bio:Elena Scarsella is a PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge (Department of Archaeology) with a thesis on the formation of identity in the mountainous district of central Italy between the Iron Age and the Romanization. She earned a BA in Etruscology and a MA in Aegean Archaeology at La Sapienza, University of Rome. Elena has worked on many pivotal sites in Italy, including Veii, Populonia, Rome, and Fossa, for which she was Field Director in 2021. On a broader level, her research interests cover the archaeology of war and conflict, landscape archaeology and the anthropology of mountains. In her spare time, Elena is a mountaineer, a fencer, and an archer.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 3rd November 2022
Surrogate beasts: Violence and the human body in Iron Age Europe Cambridge Archaeology 2022-11-21 | Prof. Ian Armit (University of York), Surrogate beasts: Violence and the human body in Iron Age EuropeAbstract:Evidence for inter-personal violence in Iron Age Europe comes in many forms, including elaborately provisioned warrior graves and heavily enclosed settlements and hillforts. In this paper, I focus on the evidence for ritualised violence seen in the treatment of human bodies found in multiple contexts across Iron Age Europe. These range from victims of headhunting and trophy-taking to individuals singled out for killing under heavily ritualised circumstances. I will discuss this evidence in relation to the related concepts of moralistic aggression and moral disengagement and consider the role of performative violence in structuring social relations within Iron Age communities that can increasingly be understood as heterarchical or anarchic, in contrast to the traditional vision of hierarchical ‘Celtic’ tribes.Speaker Bio:Ian Armit is Professor of Archaeology at the University of York. His research centres on the cultural archaeology of the European Later Bronze and Iron Ages, the role of conflict and violence in non-state societies, and the demographic and genetic prehistory of European populations. He has directed fieldwork projects in Scotland, France and Sicily and has worked extensively in south-east Europe. He currently runs the ERC-funded COMMIOS Project examining the bioarchaeology of later prehistoric populations in Britain and the near Continent.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 27th October 2022
Ritual violence in the Classical World Cambridge Archaeology 2022-11-21 | Prof. Giovanna Bagnasco (University of Milan), Ritual violence in the Classical WorldAbstract:How can we address the role of violence within ancient sacrificial rituals with today’s eyes? Violence and sacrifice bring many facets of humanity into play, making it very difficult to delineate linear research paths. There are many overlaps and interferences between research approaches and research object. In addition, we have to contend with the enormous gap between evidence in archaeological remains and in written literary sources. In broad terms, we can identify two main distinct approaches: those who start from theoretical and anthropological constructs, and those who proceed from material culture in an interdisciplinary manner (human and animal skeletal remains, archaeological contexts, iconography).This lecture seeks to map the focus of each study in this literature review, according to the theoretical apparatus and subsequent debate developed from the19th and 20th centuries.Speaker Bio:Giovanna Bagnasco graduated in Classics and has a PhD in Archaeology. Since 2019 she is a Professor of Etruscan Studies at the Università degli Studi of Milan, a member of the Dottorato di Ricerca in Etruscologia group at “Sapienza”, Università di Roma, and a membro ordinario of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi e Italici. She is Director of the archaeological excavations of the Università degli Studi of Milan at Tarquinia and of the Coordinating Research Centre ”Tarquinia Project”.Her most important achievements relate to the Etruscan world, through the analysis and interpretation of archaeological and epigraphic data. Of particular significance are her studies on the phenomenon of writing in the Italian peninsula.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 20th October 2022
Robert Capa, ʽBeni culturaliʼ and the Battle of Troina: Memorialising Violence Cambridge Archaeology 2022-11-20 | Prof. Simon Stoddart (University of Cambridge), Robert Capa, ʽBeni culturaliʼ and the Battle of Troina: Memorialising ViolenceAbstract:During a fieldwork in Italy, I frequently encountered both the war monuments of the first world war erected by Mussolini and the physical relics of the Second War in Gubbio, Montelabate, Malta, and most notably in Troina, where the most significant battle for Sicily in 1943 took place between the Germans and Americans. This lecture will reflect on the memorialization of violence in the Italian theatre, a memory at a distance since only experienced through the photos of Robert Capa in Troina, introduced by the 150 letters and logbook of his imprisoned father, and detailed accounts of Major Reid in a totally insignificant battle for a minor hilltop north of Perugia between Indians and Germans. What is most remarkable and the main focus of the lecture is the way the young mayor of Troina has chosen to memorialize positive outcomes of the violence that surrounded his small town in late July and early August 1943, by presenting the battle as a cultural asset in the promotion of this remote and isolated town.This lecture has been co-authored with Dr. Flaminia Bartolini. An earlier version was presented at a Marie Curie workshop in Ghent (PI Nino Crisa) and yet another version is under review for publication in the proceedings of the same workshop.Speaker Bio:Simon Stoddart is a University Teaching Officer in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, who researches longue duree landscapes, most notably in the Mediterranean.Flaminia Bartolini has a postdoctoral Leverhulme position at ICCROM in Rome researching the dark heritage of Mussolini in Africa. Her Ph.D. was on the dark heritage of selected Mussolini monuments in Rome. Her MPhil was on the long reach of fascism in creating new memories in the small town of Troina. Simon Stoddart gratefully acknowledges that he is drawing on her unpublished dissertation for part of this lecture, as he did in Ghent.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 13th October 2022
Heritage and violent conflict: Impacts and legacies of the Biafra war Cambridge Archaeology 2022-11-20 | Stanley Jachike Onyemechalu (University of Cambridge) | Heritage and violent conflict: Impacts and legacies of the 'Biafra war' (1967-1970)Abstract:Is the impact of violent conflict on heritage only destructive? Can heritage be used to repair the legacies of violent conflict? These contending questions in conflict-heritage studies remain underexplored. Combining interviews, archival/historical research and field site visits, I examine this complex relationship between heritage and the legacies of violent conflict in the context of the ‘Biafra war’ (1967-1970) in Igboland, Nigeria. As much of this research is ongoing, I discuss the ‘memory battles’ in post-civil war Igboland, while raising the prospect of a ‘generative’ impact of violent conflict on heritage and the potential of (in)tangible cultural heritage to address the legacies of violent conflict.Speaker Bio:Stanley Onyemechalu is a Gates Scholar and Ph.D. student in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. His Ph.D. research, which explores the intersection of cultural heritage and the legacies of violent conflicts in the context of Nigeria’s civil war, was recently awarded the Emslie Horniman Anthropological Scholarship Fund. Stanley holds a Lectureship in Archaeology and Heritage studies at the University of Nigeria and is a postgraduate member at the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre.Seminar Series & Date: Garrod Research Seminar, 6th October 2022
Prof Theresa Singleton - The worlds the enslaved created or forced to endure Cambridge Archaeology 2022-09-21 | "The worlds the enslaved created or forced to endure. Balancing archaeological narratives of slavery" - Inaugural Lecture by Theresa A. Singleton, Professor of Anthropology, Syracuse University & Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions, 2021-22, University of Cambridge. This lecture was recorded at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 18 May 2022. Abstract: The archaeological study of slavery in the Americas is more than a half century old. Since that time, archaeologists have examined various dimensions of slave life from everyday life and living conditions to spirituality and resistance. A persistent critique of some archaeological narratives of slavery is that they contained little information on the violence of slavery. In this talk, I first examine how the archaeology of slavery developed from anthropological and historiographic perspectives that championed the agency and creativity of the enslaved. Second, I address how the recent historiographic turn framed around the violence of slavery is most evident in the carceral landscapes of many plantations. Finally, while I argue that narratives of slavery should aim to incorporate both the creativity of enslaved and the violence of slavery, I follow the position of Katherine McKittrick and others, who contend that if all we see is suffering and violence, then our narratives can only yield information on people who suffered, but never truly lived.Biography: Theresa is Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University, New York, USA, and the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions, at University of Cambridge, 2021-22. She was also, Curator of Historical Archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution, 1988-2000. Her areas of expertise are African Diasporas, Slavery and Plantations, Museums, Southern United States, and the Caribbean. Her most recent book, Slavery Behind the Wall, was published in 2015. In 2014, the Society for Historical Archaeology awarded her the J. C. Harrington Medal for her lifetime contributions to Archaeology.
Dr Sjoerd Kluiving - TERRANOVA from the last and current Interglacial periods into the Anthropocene Cambridge Archaeology 2022-06-22 | "TERRANOVA from the last and current Interglacial periods into the Anthropocene: an Atlas database drawing lessons from ancient land use for future European landscape management" - Dr Sjoerd Kluiving, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamThis talk was given as part of the Garrod research seminar series held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge on 16 June 2022. Abstract: TERRANOVA is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (H2020-MSCA-ITN) project (2019-2023) training 15 PhD students in a new learning initiative between Humanities and Science: Mapping past environments and energy regimes, rethinking human-environment interaction and designing land management tools for policy. TERRANOVA will produce an unprecedented atlas with layers of reconstructed and modelled land-use and vegetation dynamics, climate change and mega-fauna history in Europe from the Eemian (Last Interglacial) and the Holocene from the start up until the present day. This paper describes the intermediate results of two years of research into Atlas building. Communication and data exchange, as well as the process of atlas generation work flow, have been undertaken, including examples of datasets from deep history, ancient landscapes, energy regimes and climate scenarios. The atlas database implements state-of-the-art standards for increasing the interoperability of spatiotemporal datasets. It is currently formed by four main data types: Archaeological data, Climate data, Land cover data, and Megafauna (i.e. large mammals) distribution. This paper explores the TERRANOVA research and concludes with listing the next steps to stream the Terranova atlas as a tool for communicating the European history of environmental change, including support for future landscape management policies.
Dr Chelsey Geralda Armstrong - Documenting land-use legacies in Pacific Northwest of North America Cambridge Archaeology 2022-06-21 | "Documenting land-Use legacies in the Pacific Northwest of North America: coupled archaeological and ecological signatures of indigenous forest gardens" - Dr Chelsey Geralda Armstrong, Simon Fraser UniversityThis talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 9 June 2022. Abstract: Land-use scientists increasingly recognize that ecological and anthropogenic forces have long interacted in complex ways, forming many of the landscapes we observe today. For example, Indigenous peoples’ legacies of plant cultivation and management can have profound effects on contemporary forest structure and species composition long after such practices have ceased. Despite relatively rich ethnographic accounts of practices like orcharding and fruit tree management in the Pacific Northwest of North America, archaeological research documenting these practises have been lacking. This presentation combines various lines of evidence from ecological and archaeological sources, allowing us to document and better understand Indigenous orcharding and forest gardening throughout British Columbia (Canada). This relatively new research contributes to a growing body of evidence which reveals the ways in which Indigenous peoples’ land-use has positive effects on the lived landscapes and supports descendant communities seeking to re-integrate land-based foodways and livelihoods in unprecedented times.
Prof Anneli Ekblom - Landscape history, archaeology and storytelling Cambridge Archaeology 2022-06-17 | "Landscape history, archaeology and storytelling" - Prof Anneli Ekblom, Uppsala Universitet and IHOPEThis talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 2 June 2022. Abstract: The a-historical notion of a static wilderness nature remains pervasive in popular images, policy debates and landscape planning. This narrative impedes the very goals of conservation in terms of biodiversity protection, and the possibilities of economic and social equity for communities both in and around conservation areas and also more broadly in landscape planning. In the seminar, I will give examples of projects from Sweden, Sicily and Mozambique how landscape history and archaeology can contribute to a better understanding landscape change and better promote the combination of biodiversity goals with sustainable livelihoods. The pervasiveness of the wilderness image shows us how a story is never just a story. On the African continent, decades of revisionist work combining archaeology with climate- and vegetation history, has made us understand the scale and complexity of landscape changes. Despite this, landscape planning and restoration work still draw on strongly on the wilderness idea, resulting in a homogenisation of landscapes. Therefore, storytelling is a fundamental, albeit underappreciated, tool in dissemination to the public and to policymakers, as also a method for co-production of knowledge with and for local community. Our work joins the amassing chorus of works that realised the power of the narrative for writing multi-species histories that shows the entanglement and embeddedness of humans, fellow organisms and landscapes to promote feral proliferations.
Prof Junko Habu - Historical ecology and changes in Jomon landscape practice: examples from NE Japan Cambridge Archaeology 2022-06-14 | "Historical ecology and changes in Jomon landscape practice: examples from northeastern Japan" - Prof Junko Habu, University of CaliforniaThis talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 26 May 2022. Abstract: This presentation argues that historical ecological approaches to continuity and change in landscape practice from the prehistoric Jomon period (ca. 16,000-2,300 BP) to the present are beneficial for the archaeological study of long-term culture change.Such a study can also contribute to the transdisciplinary discussion of the resilience of food production systems and long-term sustainability of human cultures and societies. Japanese archaeology, with its rich excavation data and its long tradition of community engagement and public outreach, is in an excellent position to contribute to these contemporary debates. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric studies in Japan demonstrate the importance of local and traditional ecological knowledge in assessing the resilience of socioeconomic systems at multiple temporal and spatial scales. In this presentation, I examine Early and Middle Jomon (ca. 6,000-4,400 BP) data in reference to ethnographic data from the Tohoku region, northeastern Japan, and discuss continuity and change in landscape practice. The significance and implications of starchy food, such as chestnuts, in Early and Middle Jomon diet are evaluated in relation to subsistence and food diversity, biodiversity, environmental management and forest ecosystems.
Dr John Murphy - Modeling ‘The Dawn of Everything’ Cambridge Archaeology 2022-06-13 | Modeling ‘The Dawn of Everything’: how simulating a complex yesterday might (or might not) help us with a complicated tomorrow - Dr John Murphy, Northern Illinois University and Argonne National LaboratoryThis talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 19 May 2022. Abstract: Water management has been a challenge in the arid deserts of the southwestern U.S. for millennia. In this seminar I will present two simulations that have examined water management in the area around what is today Phoenix, Arizona, USA. One was designed to understand the operation of the prehistoric canal system that for several centuries linked a collection of villages along the Salt River; the other examined modern water management among the collection of municipalities surrounding Phoenix proper. The tool used for both was Agent-Based Modeling (ABM). ABM flexibly allows explorations of possible socio-ecological strategies at multiple scales and of varying composition. However, ABM also has limitations that are not always fully recognized or explicated, leaving its role and trajectory within archaeological theory and practice uncertain.To examine this, I will consider the potential of ABM in light of 2021’s The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This new book asserts that archaeologists have failed to recognize swaths of complex and effective social forms and their associated archaeological signatures. Using the two simulations as examples, I will consider two opposing positions: First, that ABM, as part of a ‘Model-Based Archaeology,’ is well-positioned to address the issues raised by Graeber and Wengrow and is the correct tool to understand the wider variety of social arrangements they posit. But second, that the questions raised by Graeber and Wengrow are questions that ABM is ill-equipped to answer. The resolution to this carries implications for the broader project of applying our knowledge of the past to today’s social and environmental challenges.
Prof Roland Fletcher - Low-density urbanism, risk and climate instability Cambridge Archaeology 2022-05-26 | "Low-density urbanism, risk and climate instability" by Prof Roland Fletcher, University of Sydney.This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 5 May 2022. Abstract: Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire between the 9th and the 14th century was a giant, low-density, urban complex covering about a thousand square kilometres – with a population of about 750,000 within a region containing over 900,000 people. The population of Angkor depended on the vast infrastructure of the urban water management network to minimise the risks of seasonal variation in rainfall and sustain the economy of the city. By the 13th century parts of the urban network were complex and over 500 years old. The former tropical forest of the region had been removed and replaced by a landscape of rice fields with economically useful trees and shrubs around the houses.In the 13th century the change from the Medieval Warm Phase to the Little Ice Age began, causing severe climatic instability for more than a century. Mega-monsoons were interspersed with severe droughts. The mega-monsoons tore out the main canal across Angkor and caused serious erosion in centre of the city, disrupting the water management network. The urban population’s protection against drought was broken and the economic demands of the city could not be sustained. Between the 14th and the 16th century Angkor was largely abandoned and the urban heartland of the Khmer Empire reverted to forest and villages. The impact of severe climate change on the combination of low-density urbanism, extensive landscape clearance and dependence on massive infrastructure has some potential significance for industrial urbanism in the 21st century.
Prof Alison Wylie - 33rd McDonald Annual Lecture Cambridge Archaeology 2022-05-17 | "Bearing Witness: Collaborative Archaeology in a Settler Colonial Context" - Prof Alison Wylie, University of British Columbia. The 33rd McDonald Annual Lecture was given by Prof Wylie on 11 May, 2022. Abstract: There has been a powerful and insistent move to “decolonize” archaeology since the early 1990s. Bearing in mind the challenge posed by Tuck and Yang, that “decolonization is not a metaphor,” I explore the question of what’s required in practice to realize decolonizing ambitions in a settler-colonial context: do various forms of practice that fall along the “collaborative continuum” meet the challenges posed by a succession critics who insist that these models of practice either fail as archaeology, or fall short of realizing any significant transformation of the field? To make concrete the promise and the pitfalls of building collaborative partnerships that address these concerns I consider emergent and longstanding projects with Coast Salish communities, focusing on approaches to inquiry that conceive of it as a practice of “bearing witness." The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research hosts a keynote Annual Lecture delivered by eminent, international scholars on a wide range of archaeological research which crosses continents, periods and approaches in its exploration of the diversity of the human past.
Why move to a city in Ancient Sumer ? Cambridge Archaeology 2022-04-14 | What could be the advantages of living in a city during difficult times? What does it offer? Ponder the advantages and disadvantages of living in a Sumerian city with Dr Marie-F. Besnier, to decide whether you would like to move in or not! Part of a series of four videos to explain Sumerian cities to children (7-14) and their parents presented by Dr Marie-Françoise Besnier. What are the origins of the first cities? Why did Sumerians adopt the city way of life? What are the main features of a Sumerian city? What was it like to live in a Sumerian city? The videos explore those topics, answer some questions and raise other issues!
Living in a Sumerian city Cambridge Archaeology 2022-04-14 | Now that you decided to move in the city: what is your life like? Where do you live? Who are your neighbours? What about living conditions: health, food, water, rubbish... and festivals? In this video, Dr Marie-F. Besnier covers many questions you may have about Sumerian everyday life.See Travel in Sumer, the book! (esagil.co.uk/travel-in-sumer-the-book) if you would like to go on with your trip in Sumer, and "meet" some Sumerians! Part of a series of four videos to explain Sumerian cities to children (7-14) and their parents presented by Dr Marie-Françoise Besnier. What are the origins of the first cities? Why did Sumerians adopt the city way of life? What are the main features of a Sumerian city? What was it like to live in a Sumerian city? The videos explore those topics, answer some questions and raise other issues!
First (mega) cities in the world Cambridge Archaeology 2022-04-14 | In this first video, Dr Marie-F. Besnier briefly comes back on the origins of Sumerian mega cities, and on some of the issues raised by this question. She also focuses on how Sumerians themselves tell us about their history of cities.Find out more about the first city (according to Sumerians!) and explore the world of the marshes: esagil.co.uk/travel-in-sumer-the-book/eridu-a-world-of-magic-in-the-marshlandPart of a series of four videos to explain Sumerian cities to children (7-14) and their parents presented by Dr Marie-Françoise Besnier. What are the origins of the first cities? Why did Sumerians adopt the city way of life? What are the main features of a Sumerian city? What was it like to live in a Sumerian city? The videos explore those topics, answer some questions and raise other issues!
Explore a Sumerian city! Cambridge Archaeology 2022-04-14 | Discover the main features of a Sumerian city and compare with our modern cities: are Sumerian issues so different to ours? This second video takes you in the heart of a (famous) Sumerian city: Ur. Explore the residential districts and visit the house where you could live! Dr Marie-F. Besnier also presents some aspects and directions of current research. Archaeology has a lot more to tell us about ancient Sumerian cities!If you wish to find out more about the city of Ur, see Ur: Sumer booming capital city! – Esagil Games esagil.co.uk/travel-in-sumer-the-book/ur-sumer-booming-capital-cityPart of a series of four videos to explain Sumerian cities to children (7-14) and their parents presented by Dr Marie-Françoise Besnier. What are the origins of the first cities? Why did Sumerians adopt the city way of life? What are the main features of a Sumerian city? What was it like to live in a Sumerian city? The videos explore those topics, answer some questions and raise other issues!
Prof Matthew Johnson - Enduring Structures, Patterns of Change: ‘English’ Landscapes in N. Atlantic Cambridge Archaeology 2022-03-18 | "Enduring Structures, Patterns of Change: ‘English’ Landscapes in the Northern Atlantic, 1000-1800CE" by Prof Matthew Johnson (Northwestern University). This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 10 March 2022. Abstract: This talk will weave together two intellectual threads. The first is the long-term history of the ‘English’ landscape, a story traditionally told in terms of stable and local identities, enduring structures, and the very long term. The second is the developing understanding of the ‘Atlantic world’ in terms of movement, hybridity, and cultural exchange, and a view of identity as fluid, shifting and unstable. How could or should these two apparently very different ways of thinking come together when they have a common object of study – a sundial on a parish church, a restored castle, a vernacular farmstead? I do not pretend to have a full response to this question, but a partial answer may be found to be hiding in plain sight: in the basic methods of archaeological enquiry, for example stratigraphy, and the basic patterns revealed through such enquiry, for example the distribution map.
Prof Audrey Horning - Dissonance & Convergence in N Atlantic Ireland & Archaeology of Euro Expansion Cambridge Archaeology 2022-03-16 | "Dissonance and Convergence in the North Atlantic: Ireland and the Archaeology of European Expansion" by Prof Audrey Horning, College of William & Mary, Queens University Belfast. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 3 March 2022. Abstract: The role of Ireland in the early modern Atlantic has traditionally been characterized as a mere testing ground for British colonial expansion; a stepping stone towards the establishment of colonial America. Such a linear view denies the active role of the ocean itself in knitting together worlds, the complexities and reach of the Gaelic maritime world, and the fundamental ambiguity that underpinned cultural engagements on the island in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Interrogation of archaeological, documentary and cartographic sources exposes the physical manifestations of processes of hybridity and mimesis in the context of Atlantic mobility; processes characterized by dissonance and convergence.
Dr Liza Gijanto - Living on Atlantic Time: Commerce and Daily Life on the Gambia River Cambridge Archaeology 2022-03-03 | "Living on Atlantic Time: Commerce and Daily Life on the Gambia River" by Dr Liza Gijanto, St Mary's College of Maryland. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 24 February 2022. Abstract: The Senegambia was among the first regions of West Africa to be fully incorporated into Atlantic Commerce. By the early 18th century, the French and British were entrenched on the two major waterways (Senegal and Gambia rivers) following over a century of Portuguese settlement and intermarriage. By the early 18th century new settlements emerged along the entirety of the Gambia riverbank linking commercial voyages based out of the British-held James Fort to the caravans from the interior. This network was continuously realigning as different goods came in and out of demand up until the eve of British Abolition. These local, regional and global shifts are visible in the landscape and material record of the different settlements. Drawing on archival and archaeological data, I demonstrate how the long 18th century on The Gambia River, cannot be understood without examining the intensity of the region’s connection to different points across the Atlantic from the 15th to late 19th century. Specifically, I consider all the ways that the slave trade impacted both those who were and were not subject to enslavement.
Prof Akin Ogundiran - Sociality of Merchant Capital & Archaeology of Modernity in Atlantic Africa Cambridge Archaeology 2022-02-22 | "Sociality of Merchant Capital and Archaeology of Early Modernity in Atlantic Africa" by Prof Akin Ogundiran, UNC Charlotte. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 17 February 2022. Abstract: Atlantic Africa was an integral part of the object-centered world of early modernity. It was a world powered by merchant capital, which financed slavery, genocide, and various colonial projects during the seventeenth through early nineteenth centuries. Yet, merchant capital was also integrated into everyday lives. Generations of people around the world were socialized into its networks of symbols. This presentation draws from archaeological contexts and eye-witness accounts to share (1) what merchant capital reveals about the logics of early African modernity; (2) how global objects were domesticated and re-composed into new symbols and signs; and (3) the agentive roles of merchant capital in creating new ideas, imagination, and consciousness about self, community, and the world. The talk will demonstrate what materiality contributes to a more inclusive intellectual and cultural history of early modernity.
Alissandra Cummins - Interrogating and interpreting forced & free migration in Atlantic Caribbean Cambridge Archaeology 2022-02-17 | "The Presence of Absence: Interrogating and interpreting forced and free migration in the Atlantic Caribbean" by Alissandra Cummins, Barbados Museum and Historical Society. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 10 February 2022. Abstract: In a 1959 Exhibition advocate historian Elsa Goveia contextualized the importance of the West Indies to the advancement of empire by confronting the centrality of black unfreedom in that process. She stated that: Freedom confers mobility. The slave's position is characterized by fixity. His status is a matter of law, which places him under the control of a master. The master decides his occupation and his place of residence. The law restricts his physical movement. He is coerced by law and by the master's will. This presentation will examine the re-appropriation of contested and contingent colonial spaces of Barbados, as part of an ongoing process of interrogation and interpretation of the archive and the archaeology of absence, where the lives of the enslaved have been erased or obscured as part of a hegemonic process of historical production, appropriation and control. Commemoration and community engagement provide some of the tools to address the contingent nature of this historical narrative, and revising the narratives and reconstructing their presence in the process.
Dr Ryan Espersen - No Dollar Too Dark: Free Trade, Piracy, Privateering and Illegal Slave Trading Cambridge Archaeology 2022-02-11 | "No Dollar Too Dark: Free Trade, Piracy, Privateering and Illegal Slave Trading in the Northeast Caribbean, Early 19th Century" by Dr Ryan Espersen, University of Cambridge. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 3 February 2022. Abstract: The University of Cambridge research project “No dollar too dark: free trade, piracy, privateering and illegal slave trading in the northeast Caribbean, early 19th century” will investigate illicit trade between the Caribbean islands St. Eustatius, Saba, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew and St. Maarten from 1816 to around 1840 with the aim of understanding why and how these islands were drawn into an illicit trade network with pirates and the merchant houses who sponsored them, what archaeological evidence remains of these activities, and why this is relevant to current ‘theories of piracy’ and modern-day illicit trade in the region.
Dr Johana Caterina Mantilla Oliveros - Landscapes of Freedom Cambridge Archaeology 2022-02-03 | "Landscapes of freedom: Kinship-relations and Geographical Imagination of the Maroons of “la Sierra de la María” during the 17th-18th century, Colombia" by Dr Johana Caterina Mantilla Oliveros, Universidad Surcolombiana.This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 27 January 2022. Abstract: As a legal system, the transatlantic slavery created a framework for the comprehension of practices, beliefs and actions of the Africans and their descendants in the colonial societies across the Americas. Hence, legal categories such as “slave, free and maroon” generated distinctions between licit crafts, places, and geographies (cities, haciendas and palenques). How to tell the history of African and African descent communities beyond the borders of slavery? What does materiality tell us about their knowledge and the ways into which they inhabited places? Using archival sources and material culture, I analyze the case of five maroon settlements of the 17th and 18th centuries at the north coast of Colombia. While the Kinship relations allows following the ties between the inhabited palenques, the material culture recovered on field, suggest a broader network of connections. In extend, I discuss the emergence and persistence of what I have called a landscape of freedom.
Prof Theresa A. Singleton - Afro-descendants on the Move Cambridge Archaeology 2022-01-27 | "Afro-descendants on the Move: Archaeologies of Afro-Atlantic Secondary and Reverse Diasporas" by Prof Theresa A. Singleton, University of Cambridge and Syracuse University. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 20 January 2022. Abstract: In On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western World, Tim Creswell asserts mobility as liberty and freedom began to emerge during the early modern period, 1600-1800 when elites perceived of mobility as a right of the modern citizen. But, for many others, mobility was often controlled and restricted. The mobility of Afro-descendants in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is an emerging research interest in archaeology. In my overview of this archaeological scholarship, I distinguish between secondary diasporas, case studies of migrations from one place to another place within the Americas, and reverse diasporas—migrations of Afro-descendants back to Africa. As much of this research is ongoing, I raise some possibilities of the material transfers and effects of these movements on building practices, foodways, and spirituality among these resettled communities.
Prof Nam Kim - Entangled histories: Archaeology, modern politics, and heritage in Vietnam Cambridge Archaeology 2021-11-30 | "Entangled histories: Archaeology, modern politics, and heritage in Vietnam" by Prof Nam Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 25 November 2021. Abstract: Archaeological interpretations of the past can have enormous implications for present-day communities, whether at local or national levels. Practices related to fieldwork, research dissemination, and heritage management can be subject to subtle and intense forms of contestation and negotiation. This is especially the case for societies experiencing post-war or post-colonial eras of societal change. Given the range of potential stakeholders and varied agendas, there can be significant challenges for both the completion of research and the communication of findings to scholarly and public audiences. Owing to its complex nature, the archaeological enterprise can be marked by degrees of uncertainty in how research is conducted and findings promulgated. Who participates? Whose views are represented or deemed authoritative or even valid? Who can lay claims on the past, replete with its sites and materials? How is archaeology used for formations of past and modern cultural identity?For much of Asia, social developments in post-war contexts have had a major impact on the nature of archaeological practices. Using Vietnam as a case study, this lecture outlines the significance of the material record for historiography, exploring how artifacts and sites have been perceived and appropriated for constructions and reconstructions of early Vietnam. Considered are the linkages between the past and nationalistic objectives, as espoused by various entities across the centuries. With a lengthy cultural history stretching millennia into the past, the Vietnamese case is instructive in that such projects related to statehood and national imagination have not been restricted to modern eras.
Prof Aidan OSullivan - It might have been like this? Experimental archaeology Cambridge Archaeology 2021-11-15 | "It might have been like this? Experimental archaeology: Making, understanding, storytelling" by Prof Aidan O'Sullivan, University College Dublin. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 11 November 2021. Abstract: Experimental archaeology is the reconstruction of past buildings, things and practices, based on archaeological evidence, and their use, testing, recording, and experience as analogies, so as to enable a better understanding of people and material culture in the past. It has a unique potential to investigate the archaeological evidence of the past and vividly interpret and present narratives to the public. It ranges from scientific testing in laboratory conditions, to experiential approaches to things as diverse as houses, fabrics and weapon use. However, it is always us doing it in the end, and it can never ‘prove’ how things were, only that it “might have been like this.” This lecture will present the work of the UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology & Material Culture, at University College Dublin, Ireland, whose key pillars of activity are experimental archaeological research, teaching and public engagement through social media at a global level, with some case studies of successes, disasters, mistakes and storytelling.
Dr Jimena Lobo Guerrero Arenas - Do you know who knows what you dont know? Cambridge Archaeology 2021-11-09 | "Do you know who knows what you don't?: Construction of negotiated archaeological narratives" by Dr Jimena Lobo Guerrero Arenas, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge. This talk was recorded as part of the Garrod research seminar series hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research on 4 November 2021. Abstract: For the vast majority of museums in Latin America and the world in general, working with archaeological collections presents several difficulties. Perhaps one of the most challenging is the absence of archaeological contexts from which to interpret the objects. Drawing on museum experiences in Colombia and Ecuador, this presentation will address the possibilities of working with local communities whose traditions, narratives, and knowledge are connected in one way or another with museum collections. The construction and production of archaeological knowledge and narratives from a joint and negotiated approach between local communities and archaeologists becomes an exercise that can eventually overcome the uncertainty that surrounds the "truth" in the interpretation of archaeological collections.
Svetlana Nurgaziyeva - Gold from the Great Steppe Cambridge Archaeology 2021-10-28 | This talk is in Russian. "Gold from the Great Steppe: new discoveries that changed the course of a regional museum" - Svetlana Nurgaziyeva, Director, East Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Local History This presentation was given on 14 October 2021 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Abstract: In 2018, the undisturbed burial of an Iron Age Saka youth was discovered in East Kazakhstan. Furnished with astounding gold grave goods, it is only the second undisturbed burial of its kind to have been discovered on the territory of Kazakhstan. The inhumation was removed as a complete block, and brought to the East Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Local History to be excavated in minute detail. It is currently on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum as part of the Gold of the Great Steppe exhibition. Excavations are ongoing, and are funded by the East Kazakhstan regional government, making the museum a hub for the processing and dissemination of archaeological information. This talk will explore how new discoveries of international importance have changed museum practice, how the museum is navigating the relationship between active archaeological material and existing collections, and how very new information is made accessible to both a local and international audience.
Playing the Archaeologist: turning archaeology into gameplay - Jon Ingold, Inkle Studios Cambridge Archaeology 2021-07-29 | Jon Ingold is the narrative director at Inkle, an independent narrative game company. This talk was given on 28 May 2020 as part of the Computational and Digital Archaeology Laboratory (CDAL) seminar series at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Heaven's Vault site: inklestudios.com/heavensvaultInkle site: inklestudios.comCDAL seminar series: arch.cam.ac.uk/events/computational-and-digital-archaeology-laboratory-seriestime tags:00:32:30 - start of questions & answers00:32:30 - On ahistoric perspective00:39:20 - On moral ambiguity in dealing with artifacts00:48:05 - discord channel (discord.gg/inkle)00:48:23 - On reason for depicting character with health issue00:53:08 - On how the game has been received00:53:18 - On what elements of Heaven's Vault are shared with older and newer inkle games (e.g. 80 Days, Pendragon)00:56:15 - On non-profit game studios00:56:36 - On board game Troy00:57:45 - On the contrast with game canon00:59:12 - On teaching ambiguity and uncertainty in archaeology01:02:57 - On the value of archaeology and humanities01:07:25 - On the game feature where the timeline is built and visualisedEdited by Friederike Jürke and Andreas Angourakis
Dr Patricia Ayala - Breaking the gap between researcher and researched in Atacameño territory Cambridge Archaeology 2021-07-27 | Please note: Some images of human remains were edited out of respect for the indigenous communities involved."Decolonizing archaeology: breaking the gap between researcher and researched in Atacameño territory" - Dr Patricia Ayala Rocabado, Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (CIIR), Santiago de ChileThis presentation was given on 3 June 2021 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Abstract: The dichotomy between researcher and researched is a product of colonialism. For this reason, reflecting on how to decolonize archeology involves finding ways to break the gap between these categories. Collaborative methodologies are a path towards decolonization, since they challenge the power of archeologists over the past and the naturalization of indigenous people as research subjects. Considering my experience in Atacameño territory (northern Chile), in this talk I will discuss the history of power relations between archaeologists and Atacameño People and evaluate the presence of decolonial practices in San Pedro de Atacama.
Dr William White - Cultivating Diversity in American Archaeology Cambridge Archaeology 2021-06-22 | "Cultivating Diversity in American Archaeology" - Dr William White, University of California, Berkeley This presentation was given on 17 June 2021 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Abstract: In the United States, cultural resource management (CRM) employs the vast majority of archaeologists. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are reporting that they have more work than employees and new archaeologists are finding work. Widespread employment implies the possibility that diversity will increase in archaeology; however, there are several factors associated with the way we hire archaeologists that make it difficult for black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) to make the transition from college to gainful employment in archaeology. Recent research suggests, while employment is higher than in recent years, CRM archaeology is facing a shortage of incoming archaeologists which can be ameliorated by creating a more inclusive industry through reaching out to BIPOC students in a way we have not yet attempted. This talk explains how the most effective way to increase diversity is by developing public-private collaborations between CRM companies, government agencies, and anthropology departments to provide financial support and tailor industry-specific skills that will serve archaeology students after graduation. Examples of these collaborations show how universities can prepare archaeology students for the workforce while serving BIPOC communities and training tomorrow’s archaeologists. William “Bill” White, III is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley where he specializes in historical archaeology of the African Diaspora, historic preservation, and community-based research. He completed his Bachelor’s in anthropology at Boise State University in 2001 and earned an anthropology Master’s at the University of Idaho in 2005. From 2002—2014, Bill worked for several cultural resource management companies in the American West. He worked for the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) at the University of Arizona as an anthropological archaeologist from 2014—2017 when he completed his PhD. As a founding member of the Society of Black Archaeologists, Bill’s archaeological work seeks to increase diversity in archaeology and help train the next generation of professional archaeologists. He does what he can to employ local youth from underserved groups, specifically African American communities and Native American tribes, on archaeology projects. Bill has been blogger and co-host of the CRM Archaeology Podcast since 2012. He currently lives with his family in Hercules, California on unceded land of the Muwekma Ohlone people.
Prof Matthew Liebmann - Stalked by the Refuse Wind Colonialism, Disease & Violence Among the Pueblos Cambridge Archaeology 2021-06-02 | "Stalked by the 'Refuse Wind' : Colonialism, Disease and Structural Violence among the Pueblos, 1540-2021" - Prof Matthew Liebmann, Harvard UniversityThis presentation was given on 27 May 2021 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Abstract: Vehement calls for the decolonization of archaeology suggest radical changes on the horizon for the discipline. These changes have already begun to transform some of archaeology’s most cherished and enduring institutions in recent years. At the same time, archeological studies of anti-colonial resistance have revealed surprising patterns and processes shared by decolonizing social movements in the past and the present. Inspired in part by the work of postcolonial theorists, these studies have demonstrated the ways in which decolonizing events, practices, and behaviors can both approximate and diverge from anti-colonial rhetoric. Drawing upon the archaeology of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in the Southwestern United States as a case study, this presentation will highlight the contributions that archaeology has made to the study of 17th century anti-colonial resistance. In turn, these lessons from the past suggest new ways to think about the decolonization of our discipline today.
Dr Stephen Acabado - Colonialism and Meta-Narratives in the Philippines Cambridge Archaeology 2021-05-25 | "Colonialism and Meta-Narratives in the Philippines: Decolonizing History through Community Archaeology among the Ifugao" - Dr Stephen Acabado, UCLA. This presentation was given on 20 May 2021 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Stephen Acabado is associate professor of Anthropology at UCLA and the incoming director of the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies.Abstract: Professional archaeological research in the Philippines did not start until after the establishment of the American colonial government in 1898. Previously, archaeology in the country was an antiquarian endeavor, which, mirrors the history of the discipline itself. As such, previous archaeological investigations have been use in the creation of imagined narratives that forefront the culture and history of dominant ethnolinguistic groups, thereby maintaining existing structures. However, this archaeological tradition has the potential trap of generating nationalistic sentiments over cultural diversity since this approach emphasizes actual or perceived differences. As an example, Philippine Cordillera peoples have been described by dominant historical narratives as isolated and “untainted” by European, or even by lowland, cultures. They then become stereotypes of “original Filipinos,” a label that is ethnocentric since it denotes unchanging culture through centuries of existence. Models, such as the Waves of Migration Theory and the Three Age System, developed by otherwise well-meaning people were unwittingly Eurocentric. However, our archaeological studies now tell us that highland groups, particularly the Ifugao, had active and intense contacts with lowland and other highland groups, especially, during the Spanish colonial period. In fact, rapid social change coincided with the arrival of the Spanish in northern Luzon. This talk outlines how local histories and community engagement can facilitate the decolonization of history and knowledge production.
Prof Innocent Pikirayi - Decolonising Archaeological Practice Beyond Community Engagement Cambridge Archaeology 2021-05-14 | "Decolonising Archaeological Practice Beyond Community Engagement: towards a theory of the future" - Prof Innocent Pikirayi, University of PretoriaThis presentation was given on 13 May 2021 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Innocent Pikirayi is Professor in Archaeology and Head of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Pretoria. He works on the state and societies in southern Africa. Pikirayi was amongst the first Zimbabweans to train in archaeology after Zimbabwean independence.Abstract: In 2016, Peter Schmidt and I published an edited volume on decolonizing archaeological practice in Africa. Coincidentally, this was on the eve of some of the most violent student protests in South Africa, which called for, among other things, a decolonization of universities and knowledge production in Africa. While contributors to the volume emphasized the need to integrate local and descendant communities in archaeological practice, we may not have provided a definitive answer to what constitutes a decolonized archaeology in an African context. In this seminar, I discuss decolonization in terms of epistemology, pedagogy and methodology, to better articulate contemporary archaeological theory, communicate the discipline to non-specialists, and, to rethink approaches that are appropriate when collecting data. Since decolonisation invokes matters theoretical, I loosely employ Rosemary Joyce’s Languages of Archaeology (2002) to provide a critical examination of the relationship between archaeology and the approaches used to communicate to non-professionals. Since archaeologists work with communities, I go beyond this and call upon a theory of the future that premise many “realities,” congruent with historical experiences, languages, and habitus. I pose the question whether archaeologists can recognize and draw upon local as well as Western realities in working towards inference towards best explanation and conclude by stressing that listening to our peers in other societies strengthens archaeological practices and interpretations of data.
Dr Sara Gonzalez - Indigenous & Archaeological Futures Cambridge Archaeology 2021-05-07 | "Indigenous & Archaeological Futures: Creating Equity through Community-Based Storytelling with Grand Ronde" by Dr Sara Gonzalez, University of Washington This presentation was given on 29 April 2021 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.Sara Gonzalez is an assistant professor at the University of Washington, Seattle where she is developing a local program in community-based archaeology and exploring the intersections of digital media and tribal historical preservation.Abstract: In the language of self-determination, Indigenous archaeologies are expressions of the sovereignty of Tribal Nations to determine how their heritage will be cared for, now and into the future. Indigenous Nations, however, encounter several challenges in articulating sovereignty-based approaches to archaeology and historic preservation. These include a lack of funding and, most significant, the difficulty of operating within a legal framework for heritage protection that was not designed to include the specific needs or interests of Tribal Nations. How then can an Indigenous nation make archaeology work for and in accordance with tribal needs and values? Using the case study of Field Methods in Indigenous Archaeology (FMIA), I evaluate how community-based research with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon contributes to a uniquely Grand Ronde way for practicing archaeology. Preliminary outcomes from the project and its field school suggest that Indigenizing archaeology not only fosters more equitable relationships with and to Indigenous communities, but also transforms the relations of archaeology––from the field to the classroom––in ways that build our collective capacity to care for Indigenous heritage.
Dr Gai Jorayev - Ethics of archaeology: a post-Soviet (Central Asian) experience Cambridge Archaeology 2021-03-23 | This presentation was given on 18 March 2021 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.Dr Gai Jorayev is a Research Fellow at UCL Institute of ArchaeologyAbstract: Stepping beyond the debate over whether post-Soviet equals to post-colonial, one can observe strong traces of influence of Soviet period tendencies in the practice of archaeology in Central Asia. From institutional hierarchies to methods of archaeological investigation and heritage management, the developments in a macro level over the last decade or so can be interpreted, depending on the overarching political discourse in respective independent state in the region, as perpetuation of, or a reaction to a Soviet period practice of research and education. Interestingly, the cases of reaction that manifest themselves in structural changes and substantial alterations of approach very often result in predictable challenges that are very familiar from the context of ‘decolonisation’ elsewhere. Through discussions of funding, publications and ethics, this paper will attempt to relate trends in the region to the concept of Decolonising Archaeology and suggest possible ways forward.
